Saturday, May 23, 2015

Rarest ACTION in Auction! (UPDATED)

Back in 1976 when IPC were forced to suspend Action weekly because of its violent and anti-authoritarian content there was one issue that was never distributed. Only 30 issues of the issue dated 23rd October are thought to exist now and one in great condition is currently on eBay!

The bidding ends on 31st May and at time of writing (23rd May) the bids have already reached £521. Far too high for my pocket but it'll be interesting to see how much it finally goes for. If you want to bid, or just follow the auction, go to the phil-comics page by clicking here. My thanks to Hibernia Comics for bringing this to my attention. Images taken from phil-comics' eBay page.UPDATE 26/5/2015: On his Down the Tubes blog, John Freeman has dug a bit deeper on the background to this story and found that a full print run of this issue was printed, but the large majority were pulped. See here for the details:http://downthetubes.net/?p=22473

3 comments:

Blimey! (No pun intended), I bought this issue at one of the Denis Gifford auctions in 2001 for the princely sum of £135 - and that included the first issues of series 1 and 2, which I already owned. I knew this issue was a rarity, but am surprised its value has shot up so much - unusual for a modern British comic. Have just checked ebay and the value has risen to £770 with 23 bids.

Have just re-read my comment and had to laugh that I consider this 39 year old issue is 'a modern comic', but it just doesn't seem that long ago to me.

Congratulations on being one of the few people to own a copy of this rare comic, David! That's a bargain price by today's standards.

I'm not the sort to think that time flies, - 40 years really does feel like 40 years to me, - but I still think of myself as a relative newbie in comics, even though I've been working for over 30 years.

John, I still have the copies I bought back in 1976/77, although I lost interest in it after it was censored so there are quite a few gaps in the run after it returned.

Hey, folks! Comics!

About this blog:

Established in 2006, BLIMEY! is a blog that looks back at classic British comics and sometimes reports on current and upcoming titles. Images are copyright their respective publishers and are only used here for review purposes.

The images of comics on my blog are ones I've scanned from my own personal collection or, in the case of some current issues, are promotional images sent to me by the publishers. I do not support 'piracy' and unlike some I do not use images from dodgy illegal comic scan DVDs, nor do I hotlink images from other sites.

On the rare occasion when I might use an image from elsewhere I always credit the source, and I would hope that if anyone takes images from my blog for use on their own sites they will show me the same courtesy. It's simply good manners.

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About Me

I work as a professional humour comics artist and writer and have been freelancing full time since 1984, creating many characters such as TOM THUG, PETE AND HIS PIMPLE, COMBAT COLIN, BRICKMAN, ROBO-CAPERS, DEREK THE TROLL, SUBURBAN SATANISTS and others.
I've freelanced for IPC, Marvel Comics, Egmont, Panini,D.C. Thomson, and many others, covering the comics field from originated characters to licensed properties, pre-school to adult on comics such as BUSTER, OINK!, BEANO, DANDY, TRANSFORMERS, SONIC THE COMIC, TOXIC, VIZ, CiTV TELLYTOTS, LEGO ADVENTURES, HERMAN HEDNING, SWEET FA, ACTION FORCE, SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, RAMPAGE, LUCKY BAG COMIC, SWIFTSURE, WARLOCK, WHITE DWARF, ACES WEEKLY, THE DAREDEVILS, THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL, and many more.
My recent comics work has included:'Team Toxic' for Egmont's TOXIC magazine'Postman Prat', 'Kid Cops' and 'The Dark Newt' for THE DANDY'Rasher', 'Pup Parade', 'Lord Snooty' and 'Ivy the Terrible' for THE BEANO.
'Felix and His Amazing Underpants', 'Pathetic Sharks' and 'Suicidal Syd' for adult comic VIZ. 'The Daft Dimension' for DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE.